New Delhi, November 29 (IANS). Former Australia fast bowler Ryan Harris has backed a well-prepared Nathan McSweeney in the second Test against India starting December 6 at the Adelaide Oval. However, this batsman was seen struggling during his debut in the Perth Test.
McSweeney was out LBW twice by Jasprit Bumrah on his Test debut as Australia suffered a 295-run defeat to India at the Perth Stadium and now trail the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series 1-0 .
“At the moment, I think he’s the best person for it, but like everyone else he needs to score runs. It’s a bit different batting at No. 3 and opening, but not like that,” Harris told SEN Radio. “Nathan is fully prepared to do that. Obviously, he didn’t have a good start, but he played two good balls in Perth.”
Harris, who coached McSweeney in the South Australia domestic team, believes that the best position for the batsman in future Test cricket is number three.
“Ultimately, he might move back to number three at some stage, depending on what happens with ‘Uzzi’ (Usman Khawaja) in the next few years,” he said.
Meanwhile, former Australia batsman Michael Hussey has backed Marnus Labuschagne’s good performance in Adelaide. Also said that the right-handed batsman needs to solve the problems related to his mentality. Labuschagne could score only two and three runs in the Perth Test, after which questions were raised about his place in the team.
“I actually watched highlights of some of his best innings from a few years ago. It was just to see if I could see something different from what I’ve been seeing over the last week or so,” he said. From a technical point of view, there is not really much difference compared to the last Test match against India when he was playing very well and scoring a lot of runs.”
–IANS
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